One of the beers any craft beer nut aspires to try is Heady Topper from the Alchemist Brewery in Vermont. This homebrew is “inspired” by that brew. It’s meant to be in intensely hoppy 8% brew that’s has a moderate bitterness but tons of hop flavor and aroma. I’d consider it a successful brew from that standpoint, but Heady Toppper it is not….
This brew was tweaked version of the Northern Brewer “Off The Topper” recipe. I changed the water profile and hop schedule a wee bit. But otherwise it has the same ingredients. You can check out their all grain recipe here: Off The Topper
Given the amount of hops that went into this brew it was definitely one of the more challenging brews I’ve done. Yield was down to about 4 gallons (.vs. the normal 5 gallons). However, I’m happy to report that the end result is DELICIOUS. Again… it’s no Heady Topper… But it’s good…